TF Views

O6, ol' boy, you came up with a winner with this thread concept. I don't see any reason to not keep 'em going. For simplicity's sake, I figure we could cover "Wars", "Machines" "Neo", and "II" in here, just because.

Okay, so Loved: Magmatron. The thing to remember about Magmatron, he's not like the Powercore guys or ROTF Devastator. He's not a combiner without individual robot modes. He ain't Voltron. Magmatron is one robot that transforms into three separate alt. modes. And the fact that those three are all dinosaurs, and dinosaurs that don't always get toys at that, that's just the kind of thing that's gonna do it for me. The Landsaur component, I thought "Gorgosaurus" at first, but I guess "Gigantosaurus" is close. And it's just criminal that Mags has got the only Elasmosaur toy going. But I love that the Skysaur bit is a Quetzacoatlus, that was a dino I always thought was rad, so it's neat to have a toy that's clearly one of those instead of a Pteranodon. Then all three of these dinos combine for a robot mode that's big, fierce-looking, and actually looks like a leader. He just has a regal kind of look to him. He's a great toy before you take into to account his "Fuzor" mode, so that thing's just gravy on the cake. Fantastic toy, loads of fun to play with.

Hate: The Dinobot mold. I've got the Grimlock version of this thing, but I'm not holding Grimlock's GPS problem against it. That's a problem I'll deal with later. But I bought this thing thinking, "Eh, nother Grimlock, why not?" And...wow, this thing. This thing, you guys. Where to start? Shall I start with the fact that the Beast mode's just got a couple of big chunks of kibble that don't even go anywhere hanging under it? Screw positioning the legs so they look cool, try positioning 'em so they're somewhat symmetrical. Then there's the robot mode. Mother of mercy, what is this thing? The "mutant head" covers up half the robot head even when it's opened. The robot head's squatted right down so his eyes are about level with the shoulders. Said shoulders don't lock down worth a crap. There's no chest, just a dino head sitting there. The legs, I actually like. The proportions there are neat, but man. I've bought a lot of Grimlocks, but this is easily the lamest one. Somehow I'd never had this mold until about a month or two ago, and it's probably for the best, it might have put me right off Transformers entirely. Worth the three bucks I spent on it, neat as a curiosity, like a shrunken head or something, but not that good a toy.

Yeah, the Dinobot toy isn't all that good. I got one off Ebay pretty cheap, and I pretty much agree with your criticisms of it. It's mainly the giant legs hanging under the raptor belly that bother me... the rest of the flaws are easy enough to overlook.


Love - Transmetal Megatron. A Tyrannosaur with roller skates and hip turbines. Good show likeness and a transformation that uses or hides all the various parts well, with the exception of the fist-chest in dino mode. But at least that's not too obtrusive.

Hate - pick just about any of the early Beast Wars toys... animals and seams don't go together. They just don't. Some of the figures get away with it more than others, like Waspinator. But Cheetor is just a misshapen hunk of plastic with all sorts of seams and huge hind legs, and Rhinox is one of the worst shellformers ever, even though I love the character.

I'd leave BM out of this, just because the aesthetic is so different--or, at least, if you're going to "compare" two toys, do it directly--two BM toys, or two toys from BW/BWII/Neo. Same with Machine Wars. If only because they're so clearly different and stuff. It'd be weird to go "Yeah man Ultra Primal rules while Deluxe BM Primal sucks."

That said:

Loved: BM Deluxe Jetstorm. Up until probably Classics Starscream, this was my favourite TF jet mould Evar. It even doesn't have the problems with the vac metal that Ultra Jetstorm has. I always really wanted Universe Skywarp, and even found one cheap at Steel City Con a few years ago, but passed for reasons I don't remember.

Hated: Deluxe Primal. It's not even the design; it's just that it's totally not Primal. And the colours are iffy. I can see what they were kinda going for but it doesn't work. His transformation isn't that great either.

Onslaught Six wrote:I'd leave BM out of this, just because the aesthetic is so different--or, at least, if you're going to "compare" two toys, do it directly--two BM toys, or two toys from BW/BWII/Neo.

Yeah, I'd thought about that, but figured it'd be easier to just have one thread to talk about all of 'em in. Besides, if Beast Machines had it's own thread, I'd want to talk about how rad Nightviper or Rattrap or Motorcycle Drone are, and then I'd have to think of a BM toy that I hated. And I'm honestly not sure there are any. I mean, if I even like (not-so) Mega Megatron...

Anyway, screw it.

Love: Stampy. This guy's a little tiny basic bunny with a half-ass "weapon" mode. He kicks all kinds of ass. He's sort of guilty of Neo's kibble issues, where just pieces of the beast mode shell hang off the robot everywhere, but pulls it off okay. Maybe it's just the novelty of the robot turning into a fuzzy bunny. Also, I love that said bunny has a slightly terrifying look on his face. I wouldn't mess with him. It's additionally fun to pose the figure with Cohrada, for the novelty of having a predator and it's likely prey on the same team.



Hate: Dead End. This is a weird one for me to dislike, I should love this thing. Crazy beast mode, neat robot mode, lots of bright pink and purple...Dead End should be really cool. And he does actually look really cool in both modes. Well, providing you can ignore the biggest chunks of shoulder kibble ever, but they're worked into an interesting design. But transforming this guy is a mess. Beast-to-robot, no problem, but to do the reverse you've gotta cram the robot body back into the ammonite shell, and there's only one way that it works. It is not easy to find that way, and the figure does nothing to indicate how he's gonna fit. You just contort the fucker over and over until the shell snaps together. Frustrating doesn't begin to say it. So I don't know, I like things about this toy, but it's in Beast Mode now and likely to stay that way for quite some time.

When it comes to Beast Machines, it used to be simple for me. I liked just about all the Vehicons and didn't like 95% of the Maximals. That's no longer the case... the Maximals are often better than I thought at the time. Some of them are still awful though.

Love - deluxe Jetstorm. I agree with O6... this is still one of my favorite jet-formers ever. The main weakness is the soft plastic of the 'ears'/tailfins that warps so easily. Other than that, everything works well. The color scheme is very strong, the undercarriage legs blend nicely into the jet (one of the few times this is true with a TF jet), you get either legs or a hover mode in robot mode, and the jet can stick out its nose and look around. It's very much a "living machine" as all the Vehicons were meant to be.

Hate - Nightscream. Too big, and a floppy pile of plastic parts that isn't fun in either mode. Why this thing was made at the $20 price point I'll never know. It would have been a passable deluxe.

Wow, my absolute most favorite era of TFs.

I am going to assume "Robots in Disguise" and "Machine Wars" go here as well.

The good:

RiD Megatron/Galvatron: Fantastic toy. It looks exactly like the animation model, has plenty of articulation, and allows for fan modes.

Carrio Brothers: Despite being shell-masters and a bit clunky, these toys represent an experimental stage in the development of the line, cars with with beast-era style articulation and engineering.


The bad:
I tend to agree with Anderson about early beast moulds. They were stiff and had obvious seems and panels.

TM2 Megatron: This toy is a mess. It gets in its own way as it transfoemrs, and (in contrast to many other toys from this point) did not look like its animated counter-part.


Dom
-has to agree, Dinobot/Grimlock sucks pretty hard core.

Sorry, Dom, rule is to keep it within style definitions. RID's a different line than BW, can't do it that way.

(I feel like being a twit for unrelated reasons. It's my thread idea and I say how it works, damn you all.)

Bah. Fine.

Inferno was a good toy. Besides looking much like the animation model of a good character, it displays well and has good fiddle value.


Dom
-has a certain fondness for Optimus Minor as well.

Op Minor is an awesome little four-armed monkeydude. And I never got Inferno but I heard he was decent.

I found Inferno for $5 in a Kay Bee toys in a mall in Pineville NC years after BW went off the air. I'm guessing that it had sat forgotten in the stockroom and was put out on the shelf when they were clearing out the store to close it down. Whatever the reason, it was a great find as far as I was concerned.